Perfect
by rockpaperscissor
Summary: The world moves on, after all, and Rosette's happiness was not something Chrono could ever resent.


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_**P e r f e c t  
**_

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_Author's Note: _Yes, another fandom. I can promise you guys that this will be my one and only venture into it - I read the manga, watched the anime, fell in love, and this came out. I really couldn't help it this time... it's rather long, but I hope you guys enjoy anyway. I wrote it for myself, really, and there was no point making this a chaptered story.

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_Warning: _This follows the manga ending. Therefore, spoilers abound.

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He looked up from the note in his hand and read the sign again. 

Back to the note.

_905 Cedar Lane, Albany, New York._

Back to the sign.

…No mistaking it. This had to be it.

His heart clenched tightly.

_But…that means…_

It was a beautiful house. Dark blue shutters, red roof, wide windows adorned by tasteful white curtains with silver trim. There was a stone pathway leading to the door, and bright flowers of red, white and violet surrounded the house as if enclosing it with affection and vitality. An old oak tree boasted a yellow swing that swayed softly with the wind, inviting nostalgic memories of childhood play.

It was a cheery front, warm and inviting, and it fit perfectly with the suburban neighborhood. With the life she deserved.

…And there were children.

A laughing boy shoved a giggling girl, clearly his sister, and ran away screaming in hilarity. He'd never met either one, but there was something about them – their laughs, their faces – that was painfully, _achingly,_ familiar.

He smiled sadly, although he reminded himself that there was nothing to be sad about - the world moves on, after all. And her happiness was not something he could ever resent.

He braced himself. The children ignored the stranger as he slowly made his way past the white picket fence and rang the doorbell.

The door opened rather too immediately and violently, startling him into taking a shaky step back.

"For the last time, my wife does _not _take autographs, she's not even here, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd. just. _leave_!"

With that, it slammed shut.

Chrono blinked. After a moment in which he half-heartedly contemplated giving up and leaving, he knocked on the door. This time when it opened, he was quick to insert a word in.

"U-um, I think there was a misunderstanding…"

There was a pause, then the door opened fully and a man appeared in the doorway, grinning and scratching his head sheepishly as he scanned Chrono up and down. "…Whoops. Ah, sorry for that. We've had some annoying people coming by, and they're the only ones who ever ring the doorbell, so I thought… well, never mind now. I'm really sorry. Hope I didn't scare you too badly."

"It's okay," he said distractedly, observing the man with a neutral eye.

He was young - not terribly handsome, but he had a likable face, with a round nose, black hair and warm, intelligent brown eyes that seemed absolutely sincere and unassuming. That grin of his was probably an almost permanent fixture on his face, and his posture was lax, almost lazy, and indicated someone who was utterly at peace with the world and his place in it.

All in all, he looked like a good man. Chrono couldn't help but like him.

…Still, a small part of him rather wished he didn't.

"Good." The man held out a smooth, unscarred hand. "Anyway. Damian Perringway. How can I help you?"

He shook the offered hand and replied, "I'm Chrono."

Rosette's husband should understand something from that. Hopefully. Unless… unless Rosette never spoke of him… maybe she'd been angry? Or did she just try too hard to forget?

But thankfully, the man's – Perringway's – eyes glimmered with recognition, and understanding filled his expression. "You're Chrono? _That_ Chrono?"

He nodded, his relief a bitter taste in his mouth. "I… Sister Kate sent me here," he explained. The old Magdele convent had been the first place he'd thought of after he'd woken up after the fight with Aion. No matter what happened, he knew the people there would be able to tell him where Rosette was

The change in the nun had been apparent, from the softening of her eyes to wrinkles lining her mouth, and for the first time he realized how long his sleep must have been for everyone else. Sister Kate had been glad to see him, though admittedly (strangely and uncharacteristically) tearful at the same time, yet she'd refused to tell him anything beyond this address.

But now he saw why.

It was difficult to digest. Rosette had moved on, made a new life without him. Would Chrono be able to make in it a place of his own once more?

Regardless of whether he could or not, he knew he could never leave her again…

Perringway's eyes softened. "I see. You want to see her, don't you?"

_Yes, yes, yes! _"If you don't mind, Mr. Perringway..."

The man chuckled, took a hat off a hanger and put it on. "It's Damian. And don't worry, I don't begrudge my wife her friends."

The demon forced out a grin. Rosette really had found the perfect guy. "That's good to know."

"Just a second, Chrono." He came out of the house and shut the door behind him, then promptly left Chrono to cross over to the other side of the yard. "_Yo, Mrs. Lee?_" Chrono could hear him yell out over the fence. "_Can you watch the brats for a bit??_"

The demon's ears didn't catch the answer, but it must have been satisfactory, for he bounded back to Chrono, twirling a key chain round his index finger.

"If it's all the same to you, we'll take my car. Don't know how you've made it out here," he peered interestedly at the empty driveway behind Chrono, "but it's probably not something I can use."

"It was a taxi."

"Oh."

* * *

"She talks about you a lot, you know." 

It made him feel a little better. "Really?"

Damian had an easy laugh, he'd found. "Yeah. Still considers you one of her best friends. Despite everything those people from Magdale said, she was _convinced_ you were out there somewhere." He glanced over at Chrono. "Guess she was right."

He smiled softly. It was nice to know she had believed in him all this time. "I didn't mean to keep her waiting."

"Well…" Damian gave him another glance, then shook his head. "Never mind, not my place to ask. I'm sure you'd had your reasons."

"Yeah."

Silence. Chrono tried futilely to prevent himself from thinking. He was nervous, _so_ nervous, which was ridiculous because it was only Rosette after all – only Rosette, the girl he loved and left behind, the person who knew him better and more than anyone else ever had, ever tried, and if he kept thinking about it he'd probably lose his nerve and jump out of the car, run until he couldn't see the changes, the happiness, her _husband - _the life she has now that so _obviously_ doesn't include him anymore –

He stared out the window. The scenery wasn't anything he was used to – manicured, organized, not vast like the country, yet not city-like at all. It was a happy medium between the two, yet he wondered if it wouldn't be _too _quiet and methodical for his Rosette.

The Rosette he'd known, anyway. Time couldn't change her that much, could it?

Just to make sure, he verified, "…You're taking me to see Rosette, right?"

Damian nodded, suddenly sober. "That's where she is. It was today, you know…" he stopped painfully. "Well, you would."

Chrono frowned a little, not quite reassured. Something was wrong…

"The kids miss her terribly, too."

"Why?" he asked curiously. Surely they saw her every day?

They turned into a little side street. "You should know better than I do. Wonderful, _wonderful_ person. Honestly one of my best friends. Every day with her was a miracle in itself. Kids always loved having her over."

He was getting the distinct feeling that he was missing something.

_'Was'? _"What do you-"

The car pulled to a stop next to a grassy plain that should have been out of place in New York, but somehow wasn't. "She should be over there," his arm extended over Chrono to point through his window. "Tell her she can take as much time as she wants, I've got the kids handled."

Chrono blinked. "Sure."

"Thanks." Before Chrono could get out, Damian grasped his hand tightly with both of his, eyes glittering intensely with something the demon was afraid to identify. "Listen, it was great meeting you. Now I'm sure my wife will make it extremely, obnoxiously clear, but… you know you are welcome at our house any time, right?"

Chrono was at a loss for words. It really was quite odd having the husband of the girl you loved try to make you feel welcome so exorbitantly.

He managed a nod. His hand hurt.

Damian let out a breath in relief; then, as if just realizing what he'd been doing, abruptly let go and looked away embarrassedly. "Sorry about that… I heard of you so much that I almost feel I know you. Heh, Rosette always said I was too rash with those things… "

"It's all right. It was nice to meet you," he said, and was surprised to find out he meant it. "Thanks for everything," he added, waving briefly before starting to limp in the direction Damian had pointed.

Hesitation.

"I… I'm sorry, Chrono, you know? I really am."

He turned around sharply, but by then the car was gone.

* * *

He determinedly made his way forward, going past shrubs and a few trees that did nothing to conceal him from the glaring evening light. Instead, his shadow was long and shapeless, seeming almost to rustle as it moved over wild grass. 

Chrono did not care to look, however.

_Just a bit more, just a bit more and… I'll see her again…_

He was so intent on his goal that he almost missed it – but the movement as the figure rose from a kneeling position caught his eye, despite how quiet the transition had been. He turned to look, heart pounding in his ears.

She hadn't seen him yet.

The woman, such as she was, stood there quietly, eyes closed, head bent back to face the skies. Her dress was white and summery, elegant, fitting her perfectly in all the right ways. Her hair – and indeed, her face – was up and hidden from him by a fashionable dark blue hat with a wide brim.

The demon opened his mouth, then hesitantly closed it again. Something seemed… wrong, somehow. Still right, yes, and yet…

And yet…

It was hard to put his finger on it. Maybe she was too short – but then, he didn't recall Rosette being very tall to begin with. Or perhaps it was that she was taller – but he'd been gone a long time, after all, and Rosette had been only a teenager; perhaps she'd grown. Or maybe it was the posture – too slight, not strong and bold as he remembered Rosette being; or even the hat, a single one of which he could not remember Rosette ever liking, disdaining any article that constrained her sight or hindered her expressive gestures. It had taken a great deal of persuasion to convince her to fully don the nun's habit.

He supposed that even his Rosette – _stop it,_ he berated himself harshly,_ she isn't and was never yours – _could have changed over the years, enough to emanate that sense of restrained kindness he could feel, which was not wrong but still not really Rosette at all. _He_ should know better than anyone how life, everything, can change completely in only a short time – _only four years, he couldn't believe it had only been four __**perfect**__ years – _yet now that the moment had arrived, he couldn't help but to delay it longer, wonder if he still had it in him to make a quick quiet getaway.

But he must have made a sound, or else the woman had felt him watching, for she turned around, lovely features entering his field of vision.

His breath caught.

…Lovely, and yet utterly _wrong_.

Her large, luminous eyes widened, and she seemed just as short for breath as he was.

She stepped forward.

"…Ch-Chrono?"

He felt dizzy. It… wasn't, _couldn't_ be Rosette, but… how did she know his name?

"It… it's really you…? Chrono?"

The demon, still hopelessly confused, with half his mind working and shying away from terrible, horrible possibilities, simply watched her expressionlessly, none of the bewildered struggle showing on his face.

But he nodded wordlessly. He _was _Chrono after all, even if he didn't know in the least who this person was.

"Oh…"

He had only enough time to see magnificent eyes glitter with tears before a soft weight struck him painfully right in the chest, and he found himself tightly impounded by pale arms that contrasted with his skin and ragged clothes like stars against a murky night sky. He would have fallen backwards from the unexpected impact, had not those same small arms held him up with the same gentle fierceness that they enfolded him in.

His eye registered a dark mass on the ground a few feet ahead, and Chrono recognized the hat she'd been wearing, fallen away without a second thought. His gaze strayed downwards, and he saw unbounded white hair, lustrous and flowing as a river of milk, more familiar than anything else he'd seen since he'd woken up.

It took a bit for his voice to work, and it came out uncertain, unsure.

"…Az?"

She sniffled into his shirt.

His arms came around her, partially out of a need for balance, partially because of a need to hold on to something familiar, but mostly because he was just so terribly glad to see her and wanted to stop her crying.

"Az…" he murmured in satisfaction, remembering the slight, timid girl who'd been such a good friend to him and Rosette both.

After a long moment, she pulled away, and Chrono was grateful for both the reprieve and the discovery that he could remain upright on his own.

Asmaria wiped at the corner of her eye, and her face lit with a watery smile. "I'm so glad you're all right. I… I always thought you'd come back, but it's…" her voice broke, "_so_ good to see you, Chrono…!"

He smiled gently, feeling warm despite the slight chill. "Same to you," he returned. "You've… really grown up wonderfully."

It was true. She was radiant.

She laughed a little, stifling a sob. "Did you… How did you know to get here? Today?"

"Sister Kate gave me money and the address." He hesitated, a sudden absurd whim inspiring him to mention, "From there, a certain Damian Perringway gave me a ride."

She looked up at him, the slightest bit of red flooding her cheeks. "You met Damian?"

His heart stopped. Chrono made himself nod.

His face felt numb, he thought distantly. He was very certain he couldn't feel his mouth moving. "He said to tell you the kids are taken care of, that you should take as much time as you want." He paused, throat thickening. "I saw them. They looked beautiful."

She beamed tenderly, proudly, in a way that rather reminded him of Magdalen. "They take mostly after their father."

His body went rigid, face ashen. He went one step further, to remove all doubt. "You picked very well. He's… a great guy. Really. He deserves you."

Az looked down shyly. "I was lucky."

Chrono felt himself smile woodenly. "Nonsense."

She fidgeted, blushing, uncomfortable with compliments as always. "I wish you could have been there for the wedding."

"I can imagine it was wonderful." His sight turned slightly blurry, and it was hard to manage getting the next words out. "…Rosette must have approved of him."

Her gaze snapped up to him, stricken, and her face slowly fell as she looked away.

"…Yes. She did."

His hand trembled.

"She used to look at the window a lot. 'Sometimes I can see him flying,' she told me once," Azmaria said quietly. "She always believed you, that you'd come back. And because of that, I couldn't help but believe too." She stared tremulously at nothing, eyes glassy as she did her best not to cry.

Which saddened him, for some reason. Chrono had thought that she'd stopped faking a smile years ago.

But maybe she felt she couldn't anymore. Maybe there was something missing, and it was harder to not pretend anymore.

Something….

Something important, like…

"So I knew you'd come. Someday. I just hoped… I hoped I'd be here to see it."

The thought refused to come, refused to finish forming in his head, but he knew all the same. _Had_ known it, really, ever since a stranger had opened the door to what he'd automatically assumed was Rosette's house. He'd entertained the fantasy that Rosette had settled down, changed, gotten the perfect life - but all along, he'd known that that life was not Rosette's anymore than it was his.

…Even if he had tried to dispute it, a headstone next to the tree Az had been kneeling in front of would have quickly silenced any of Chrono's futile dreaming.

"Rosette's… not alive anymore, is she?"

Az's face crumpled. "…N-no, Chrono. She isn't."

* * *

The sound of something shattering rang ominously in his ears. 

Chrono had the sneaking suspicion it was his heart.

* * *

"…You didn't know?" 

"No. Sister Kate didn't… didn't say a thing, the entire time." It had taken him months to recover enough strength to make the journey; after she'd first found him, collapsed on the doorstep of the Order in Chicago, the nun had refused to let him go until he was well again.

Which was futile, of course, considering he was a demon. Had it been meant for him to heal, he would have done so immediately. But the one thing that had not changed in Sister Kate was the stubbornness, and her rather terrifying bark when putting a demon back in his place (namely, a hospital bed); it had taken her far too long to concede that this might be the best condition he'll ever be.

His old friend looked pained. "I understand why, but… it was cruel…"

Chrono shook his head. "It must have been hard for her, to find me on her doorstep only a few months after Rosette had…" he still couldn't say it.

And kindly, Az didn't make him. She smiled painfully. "You're still… so very kind, Chrono. I wouldn't have been so… forgiving. To let you believe she was… still alive…"

"For months, I thought Rosette was alive and happy. If I hadn't…" he stole a glance at the tombstone, and just as quickly looked away, "...I don't know if I could have made it here."

Throughout those long, hurting months, he had feverishly begged Kate for stories about Rosette, little anecdotes from before and after he'd disappeared. Those tales had been all that brought him to sleep, all that gave him reason to wake up in the morning. And his heart was torn. One moment he pleaded for her to bring Rosette, the other he'd order– _command_ – the nun not to, not to disturb Rosette from her happy life, to wait until he could come back for her himself.

Kate had never responded to either of those requests.

Now he knew she couldn't.

At his words, Az's eyes widened, taking him in fully for the first time, and she stepped forward. "You're still hurt…!"

"I'm fine," he smiled weakly in a way meant to be reassuring, but nonetheless she sat him down and looked him over, exclaiming whenever she found something disagreeable or concerning. "It's fine," he reiterated futilely, but she continued to ignore him. "I can't believe they let you go out alone…" she'd mutter, and then voice under her breath the fervent wish that she had still her apostle powers.

He let her at it, looking up at the clouds overhead, maroon with bright pink undertones. "When I met Damian…" he told her musingly, after he'd been thinking for a while, "I thought he was Rosette's husband."

The gentle hands stilled in their ministrations, and he sensed her surprise.

"The address… I thought it was Rosette's home. So when he came out… I thought Rosette had found a life here." Her grip over him tightened, though he didn't glance over to see the white knuckles. "And I was… jealous, a little, but… I liked thinking she was happy."

"Oh, Chrono…"

It was all the difference between living and dying, loving and leaving, loving and _being alive -_

"It hurt to know that … that she moved on, found happiness in someone…someone else…" his voice tightened, "…but I'd do anything if it'd mean that that perfect life could have been hers! That… that she wasn't dead! I don't care if she'd forgotten me – anything is better than death! _Her_ death, Azmaria! It was all my fault!"

She slapped him.

Lightly, slowly, and it barely even registered when compared to the rest of his pain, but Azmaria _slapped _him. And if there was anything to know about Azmaria, it was that she was the least violent and most peaceful, innocent girl there was. Chrono couldn't even remember her ever holding a real gun, let alone firing it.

He looked down at her, viewing those large red eyes in disconcertment. They were angry. Only a bit, only a little, but that was still more than Az had ever shown him before.

…And what was worse, they were terribly, terribly wet.

"How could you… how _could _you regret anything?" she choked out. "Rosette gave you her soul, her heart… there could never be room for anyone else! She loved you! She cherished her time with you the most! She never regretted a single thing!"

He turned his head away. "Yet if it hadn't been for me…"

Her hand grabbed his chin and pulled it back towards her, forcing him to stare into her furious pools of red. "How- how _dare _you imply that just because you weren't there, she didn't live! She was waiting for you, Chrono, but that only made her love life more – because she knew you'd come back and she knew better than anyone else that you don't waste life, no matter how short or long it is! And that knowledge, that _strength_ was given to her by you! Because of this!" She dangled the watch - _her _watch - in front of him.

He stared at her, stricken.

She took a calming breath, put the watch to the side. "…Don't you understand, Chrono? She didn't love you for no reason. You... you always made her happy. Always. Even when you _weren't there_."

And finally, reluctantly, he understood.

And remembered.

"_Chrono… I'm happy that you came with me. But you- but if you say it was a mistake, then I'm not concerned…if you don't want to fight, you don't have to._

_But… if you're staying here for my sake, then I can't agree to it! I don't want you to stay here alone…_

_So… don't deny the good times too…"_

He gave her a tremulous smile. "Sorry, Az…"

Azmaria returned it with a sad one. "Me too." He felt something warm and metallic being put in his hand, and without looking the demon knew what it was. "Here. She would have wanted you to have it."

He looked down, eye going over the flaws, the scratches, the sharp break in the glass. He fingered the clamps with a shaking forefinger.

"…I wish she was here," he told the apostle suddenly. His eyes found hers; for the first time, his grief showed in his face. "I really wish she was here, Az."

"Me too."

And Chrono cried.

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_Author's Note: _Okay, can you say angst? It honestly depressed me just to write this fic. Chrono gets no break, does he? Halfway I thought - hey, I can make it a happy ending, have the misunderstanding be about something else... but that would have been wimping out, and it would have taken something away from it, I think. If anyone wants me to write the alternate, happier ending, I think I could manage it. Might make me feel better, too. 

So, a couple of things, in case it wasn't clear. This takes place on the first anniversary of Rosette's death, which was why Azmaria was visiting her grave. Damian, her husband, assumed that Chrono already knew about Rosette and wanted to talk to Azmaria for old times' sake - thus leading to the misunderstanding.

Please review - too angsty? (probably) terrible OC? (most likely) hated the ending? (with you there, pal)

So long,

_Rockpaperscissor_


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